Description

Chasm: The Rift is a 3D first-person shooter. As a Marine, the player has been sent inside a power plant to investigate the loss of power at the plant. They later discover that a group of monsters known as the Timestrikers are using the power to create ruptures in time that allow them to invade the Earth in three different time periods: present day, ancient Egypt, and medieval times. Timestrikers that have invaded the present day are also taking control of a nuclear plant in order to detonate a nuke that will destroy nearly all life on Earth.

The game starts in the present day, as the player goes inside the power plant and nuclear plant, battling strange-looking security guards and security systems that have gone haywire. They will then find the rifts that the Timestrikers are using to invade other time periods, eventually winding up at the Timestrikers' military base in the distant future.

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Trivia

German index

On September 30, 1998, Chasm: The Rift was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. More information about this topic can be found in the game group.
German version
There was a censored German version with green blood. They simply altered the game's color table to turn everything that was red into green. The introduction sequence with the mission assignment was also missing for unexplainable reasons.

Multiplayer

The game originally shipped without a multiplayer mode, and with some fairly serious bugs (inconsistent mouse sensitivity and a DOS timer bug). These bugs were fixed in a patch released shortly after the game shipped.

It has been criticized by users and press alike for not having a multiplayer mode, which was pretty much a necessity in first-person shooters by the time the game was released. In response to this, the developers released two patches in early 1998 that added multiplayer functionality to the game. One patch added Internet play, while the other added TCP/IP play for Windows 95 users. A new demo for the game was also released, which included the multiplayer mode and a more accurate representation of the retail game than the previous demo that was released in late 1996.

Ending [SPOILER!]

The hero must venture deep inside of a giant monster, and destroy it from the inside-out... not too different from how the arch-enemy of Quake, Shub-Niggurath is defeated.

Level maps

While the game features a 3D environment, the game level maps are limited to 2D (compare: Doom).